India, Jan. 23 -- Karolina Pliskova is making a comeback, and the tennis world's former No. 1-ranked woman is at the Australian Open and doing it the hard way. Pliskova is coming off surgery on her left ankle following an injury, played only three matches last year after much longer than expected recovery, and now she's preparing for a third-round match against defending Australian Open champion Madison Keys.

She defeated another American, 2017 US Open winner Sloane Stephens, in the first round. Then she got by 23-year-old Indonesian Janice Tjen 6-4, 6-4 on Thursday to set up the match with Keys. "It wasn't easy," Pliskova said of the victory playing an opponent she had not faced before. Now comes the defending champion. "I mean, looking...